Daily Trust Editorial, Friday May 16, 2025
In what is seen around the world as fulfilment of a long premeditated plan for full capture and occupation of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) will intensify its campaign against the Hamas resistance group. Netanyahu announced this after a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet where the plan to capture the whole of Gaza strip and take over the administration of humanitarian aid to the long besieged Palestinian residents of the strip.
This comes as no surprise as prominent members of the cabinet and extreme right wing elements in Israel have been advocating for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza strip and resettling them elsewhere. In particular, the extremist Israeli Religious Zionist Party, whose leader, Bezalel Smotrich sits on the cabinet as Finance Minister, said that “A successful Israeli incursion would leave Gaza totally destroyed, with the Palestinian population left despairing and wanting to leave the strip. He added that “There will be no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for Israeli hostages.”
The world will also not forget that months ago, US President Donald Trump had made similar remarks on Gaza in which he called for the annexation of the strip and resettling of its Palestinian residents elsewhere in the world. Trump had said that the Strip had been totally destroyed by the invasion and that it will not be humanly habitable for years to come. The best thing for the people of Gaza, Trump said, was for them to be evacuated and settled elsewhere to begin their lives afresh away from visible total destruction of houses, infrastructure and services. That we now have the Israeli cabinet echoing such statements a few days later clearly indicates that the plan is premeditated and in fulfilment of an Israeli-American Palestinian land grab.
Indeed, for as much as we know even before the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948, Jewish immigrants and settlers had been criminally annexing and occupying lands belonging to Palestinians whose ancestors had been there for centuries. Following the proclamation of Israel as a state, Israel has been engaging in continuous annexation of ancient lands belonging to Palestinians in defiance of world public opinion. Successive Israeli governments have refused to recognise, nor implement the United Nations resolution of two states, one for Israel and another for Palestine, which was what the world body envisaged with respect for both the Palestinian Arab people and the Jews. The entire State of Israel today is made up of lands forcibly seized from Palestinians and resettled with a steady stream of Jews from Europe and elsewhere.
In view of the antecedents of the Israeli state, the world is not convinced that a nuclear armed Israel, fully equipped with the latest arms in its inventory should fear for its safety and security from an irregular, non-state group like Hamas.
We believe like majority of people in the world that the Israeli government is using the issue of Hamas as Casus belli to achieve step by step, the long stated objective of Eretz Yisrael or greater Israel as planned by the Zionist visioners and founders of the Israeli State, Theodor Hertzl, Chaim Weizman and Ze’ev Jabotinsky among others.
It is instructive that the goal of greater Israel encompasses up to one-third of the entire Middle East, which extends beyond Palestine and into Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Jordan, which Israel’s Zionist founders claim as ancient lands of the Jewish people.
Accordingly, the world should not just stop at condemning the latest design by Israel, supported by the United States of America to expel the Palestinians from Gaza and annex the territory. If this is allowed to succeed, the Israelis will not stop there; they will extend to the West Bank, which is also a Palestinian territory. From there, the Israelis will be emboldened to invade and annex territories of other Arab states.
The onus of stopping the Israeli plan to annex Palestinian lands should begin with important Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who both have the leverage to rally other Arab states and also form a global coalition against Israel’s plan of total expulsion and annexation of Palestinian lands. They should do so not just on behalf of the Palestinians but also for themselves as they are not immune from Israel’s long-term annexation and occupation plans. It must be made clear to Israel that its desire to live in peace and security must not be at the expense of the Palestinians who also desire the same as members of humanity.
